Brookings: Topics - Detroit

Laying the Groundwork For Change: Demolition, Urban Strategy, and Policy Reform

Alan Mallach — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0400

According to the Census, the total number of vacant housing units in the United States grew by over 4.5 million from 2000 to 2010, an increase of 44 percent. While empty houses are everywhere, they are disproportionately found in many older industrial cities, particularly those that have lost much of their population and job base over the past several decades. Boarded houses, abandoned factories and apartment buildings, and vacant storefronts are a common part of the landscape in large cities like Detroit, Buffalo, and Philadelphia, and a host of smaller cities such as Flint, Gary, and Youngstown.

Many of these vacant buildings will have to be demolished over the coming years. Some may be too far in disrepair to be restored to productive use; in other cases, the demand or the resources for rehabilitation may not exist. Many of these properties are health and safety hazards, blighting their surroundings and devaluing their neighbors’ properties. Still others may need to be torn down in order to make way for new redevelopment important to their cities’ future vitality.

Not all empty buildings need to be demolished: Many can be productively reused, either for the same purpose as before or in new and different ways. At the same time, tearing down those that can’t be reused might not be a high priority, at least in the short term. With limited funds available, localities must be strategic about targeting those demolitions that will most benefit their neighborhoods and residents. Demolition, in short, should not be an end in itself, but rather a step in the process of creating stronger, healthier communities.

The purpose of this paper is to look at demolition in the framework of larger community stabilization and revitalization strategies, and, within that context, to put forth recommendations for how to undertake demolition in the most cost-effective and productive fashion. It conveys three primary messages:

Large-scale demolition, thoughtfully and responsibly carried out, is a necessary step in the process of rebuilding the nation’s distressed older cities. This need is driven by two factors: the macro issue of supply and demand, which has led to a vast oversupply of buildings in many cities, and the more micro issue of how vacant abandoned structures impact their blocks and neighborhoods.
Demolition is a costly, complicated process. Demolition is a complex process involving a variety of steps, activities, and regulatory requirements, each of which adds cost to the final outcome.
Strategic, cost-effective demolition is vital to stabilizing and revitalizing cities and their neighborhoods. Given both the critical need for large-scale demolition in many older communities, the costs associated with it, and the limited resources available, policymakers and practitioners need to be strategic in their decisions about which buildings to demolish, and in what areas—while getting more creative about finding the resources needed to do so.

Download » (PDF)

Downloads

Download the paper

Authors

Alan Mallach

Image Source: © Rebecca Cook / Reuters

Building a Stronger Regional Safety Net: Philanthropy's Role

Sarah Reckhow and Margaret Weir — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The growth of suburban poverty over the past two decades raises questions about the ability of nonprofit organizations to adapt to this relatively new geography of metropolitan poverty. These organizations play multiple roles, including providing basic safety net services, connecting residents to new opportunities, and serving as advocates (and sometimes as organizers) for low-income communities.

Although federal, state, and local governments are often the primary funders of nonprofits, governments do not often take the lead in creating new organizational capacities or in coordinating capacity across political jurisdictions. In many regions, the local philanthropic community has become aware of these gaps in services for the poor and has sought to assist the nonprofit community in building capacity and expanding activities. Local foundations are experimenting with various strategies to address the growing dispersion of poverty.

This analysis combines an original data set of foundation grants for social services with in-depth interviews to assess the role of foundations in supporting the suburban social safety net in the Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, and Detroit regions. It finds that:

Suburban community foundations in the four regions studied are newer and smaller than those in core cities, despite faster growth of suburban poor populations. In the regions studied, most suburban community foundations began operating in the 1990s, and have not accumulated significant asset bases. Some larger city-based foundations have taken a regional approach, but face restrictions on the extent to which they can address growing need in poor suburban communities.

The share of foundation dollars targeted to organizations serving low-income residents varies widely across regions, but relatively few of those dollars are devoted to building organizational capacity in the suburbs. Chicago saw the largest share of foundation grant dollars go to organizations serving low-income people (60 percent), while Atlanta posted the lowest share (19 percent). Detroit was the only region where total grants to suburban-based human service providers were relatively comparable to their city-based counterparts.

Suburbs with high rates of poverty have substantially fewer grantees and grant dollars per poor person than either central cities or lower-poverty suburbs. Though metropolitan Atlanta has the highest rate of suburban poverty among the regions studied, it has the lowest rate of suburban grant-making per poor person. Denver’s results are a mirror image of Atlanta’s, with the lowest poverty rate and highest suburban grant-making per poor person.

Four types of strategies to build and strengthen the capacity of the suburban safety net are showing promise in these regions. Each region is engaging in four types of capacity building strategies: supporting existing regional organizations, creating new regional organizations, supporting regional networks, and establishing new suburban community foundations.

Downloads

Authors

Sarah Reckhow
Margaret Weir

Will Full Employment Ever Return to Detroit?

Howard Wial — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:03:00 -0500

Just after the Labor Department announced that the national unemployment rate had fallen from 9.8 percent in November to 9.4 percent in December, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told the Senate Budget Committee that “[i]t could take four to five more years for the job market to normalize fully.”

For the nation as a whole, that seems reasonable. Suppose the labor force grows at the same rate it has over the last decade, an average of 0.07 percent per month. Suppose that the number of employed people (as measured in the Labor Department’s household survey, which is what’s used to figure the unemployment rate) increases by 297,000 every month, as it did in December. Then the nation’s unemployment rate will be just below 4 percent—a rate last achieved in 2000 and one that federal law sets as a target for full employment—in September 2014. Of course, if employment grows more slowly, then it will take longer for the nation to reach full employment.

But what will happen in metropolitan areas with unemployment rates far above the national average? Metropolitan Detroit, for example, had an unemployment rate of 13.5 percent in November (the most recent month for which metro unemployment rates are available). To many people in Detroit, full employment seems like a distant, perhaps unattainable dream. Even if Detroit’s unemployment rate falls as rapidly as the national rate, it will take until at least mid-2016 for its unemployment rate to reach 4 percent.

Surprisingly, though, Detroit’s unemployment rate will probably fall faster than that. The reason is that, faced with continued poor job prospects, many people will leave. That will reduce the size of Detroit’s labor force and lower its unemployment rate, even if job creation remains sluggish. In contrast, relatively few people leave the United States even during the worst economic times, and not very many drop out of the labor force because they can’t find work. (Since the beginning of the Great Recession in December 2007, the U.S. labor force fell by an average of only 0.008 percent per month.)

What’s likely to happen in Detroit? The metro area’s labor force has fallen by an average of 0.07 percent per month since the beginning of 2000, largely because the metro area’s population has declined. (The labor force fell at a slightly slower rate since the beginning of the Great Recession, perhaps because people who would otherwise have left the region couldn’t sell their houses.) Suppose that rate of labor force decline continues, and that the metro area’s employment rises by 2,164 every month, as it did in November. (That’s a slower job growth rate than the one I assumed for the nation as a whole.) Then the metro area’s unemployment rate will be just under 4 percent in July 2015--about a year sooner than it would reach that target if it fell in proportion to the national rate.

Even if employment grows more slowly than I’ve assumed (so that full employment takes longer to achieve), the moral of the story is clear. As economists Olivier Blanchard and Larry Katz pointed out almost 20 years ago, unemployment rates even out more quickly at the regional level than at the national level. People leave economically depressed regions and move to ones that are adding jobs rapidly. That lowers the unemployment rate in the depressed regions and raises it in the more vibrant ones. So it could take metro Detroit less than a year longer than the nation as a whole to return to something like full employment, even though its unemployment rate is now much higher than the nation’s.

Authors

Howard Wial

Publication: The Avenue, The New Republic

Image Source: © Rebecca Cook / Reuters

Making Washington a Partner in Detroit's Next Economy

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:00:00 -0500

Event Information

February 11, 2010
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST

College of Creative Studies
201 E. Kirby Street
Detroit, MI

On February 11, The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program and Time Inc. hosted Reimagining Detroit: Making Washington a Partner in Detroit's Next Economy at the College of Creative Studies in downtown Detroit.

Time magazine's Assignment Detroit correspondent Steven Gray joined Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, John Austin, Brookings non-resident senior fellow; The Skillman Foundation President, Carol Goss; New Economy Initiative Chair Steve Hamp; for a discussion on invigorating the Washington/Detroit relationship, with an emphasis on connecting Detroit's emerging economic development plan with help coming from Washington.

The event, drawing a crowd of over 250 people, provided a timely and open discussion on Detroit's transition to the "next economy," with a focus on federal policies that can better leverage economic transformational goals and strategies already under way in Detroit.

For media coverage of this event, please visit the following:

Reinvent Detroit - Editorial Staff - The Detroit News

Will Metro Detroit Get Rebuilding Act Together? - Amber Arellano - The Detroit News


Panelists speak at Reimagining Detroit: Making Washington a Partner in Detroit's Next Economy	Detroit mayor Dave Bing and Steven Gray of Time Inc.

Steve Hamp of New Economy Initiative and Carol Goss of The Skillman Foundation	Detroit Deputy Mayor Saul Green and John Austin, Brookings non-resident senior fellow

Participants

Panelists

David Bing

Mayor of Detroit

Carol Goss

President and CEO, The Skillman Foundation

Steven Gray

Time Inc. Assignment Detroit Correspondent

Steve Hamp

Chairman, New Economy Initiative

The Detroit Project: A Plan for Solving America’s Greatest Urban Disaster

Bruce Katz — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:55:00 -0500

Editor's note: This article originally appeared on December 9, 2009 on The New Republic under the title: The Detroit Project.

For much of the United States, Detroit has become shorthand for failure—not just because of the dilapidation of the town’s iconic industry, but because the entire metropolis seems like a dystopian disaster. It is the second-most-segregated metropolitan area in the country; the city’s population is 82 percent African American. No other American city has shed more people since 1950--Detroit is only half its former size. Its city government fails at the most basic tasks. A call to 911 will bring a response, on average, in about 20 minutes. (Such emergency calls are depressingly common in the metropolitan area: There are 1,220 violent crimes per 100,000 people.) And that’s to say nothing of corruption in the municipal ranks. This year alone, at least 48 Detroit public-school employees have been investigated for fraud--which might help explain why only one in four high school freshmen ever receives a diploma. Unemployment in Detroit stands at a staggering 28 percent. And, in key measures of economic vitality in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan regions, Detroit finishes dead last.

All this might make Detroit seem like the most hopeless case in the global history of the city. But it is hardly the worst and certainly not hopeless. Europe is filled with cities that have risen from similarly miserable conditions.

Take Belfast, which suffered not only industrial decline and disinvestment, but also paralyzing religious guerrilla warfare. Although it received the same sort of hammer blow from globalization as Detroit, it now has steady job growth after decades of losses. Its economic output leapt 35 percent per capita between 2000 and 2005. And, throughout the European continent’s industrial belt--the parts that are distinctly not Disneyland for American yuppies--there are many other examples of old redoubts of manufacturing (Bilbao, Leipzig, Sheffield, St. Étienne) that have enjoyed the very same sort of dramatic recoveries. This is not to oversell the optimism that these cities should inspire. They will never recover their full manufacturing might or swell with quite so many residents as before. Still, they represent realistic models for the rescue of Detroit.

Continue reading this article at TNR.com »

Authors

Bruce Katz

Publication: The New Republic

Ask Candidates How They'll Help Fix Michigan

John C. Austin and Bruce Katz — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The road to economic transformation in southeast Michigan is not an easy one. While still reeling from the loss of lots of good-paying auto-related jobs, the attempts to move forward economically hit a further detour with the sub-prime credit fiasco.

We see a growing understanding in Michigan and the Detroit area that the path to prosperity is about people getting fundamentally better educated than the previous factory economy demanded of them. It also means diversifying the economy to exploit new areas of opportunity in energy, design and engineering, freshwater technology, arts and entertainment, and as a logistics and trading center in North America.

What we don't see is a federal government, or the presidential campaigns, having any understanding of how it could assist metropolitan communities such as Detroit that are the hardest hit by the nation's move from an industrial to a knowledge economy.

Around the country, we are solidifying our status as a metropolitan nation. Our metropolitan communities are the economic activity centers of the global economy. This is as true in Michigan as it is in the rest of the country; 53% of Michigan's gross state product is generated in the greater Detroit area.

All of the things Detroit and southeast Michigan are trying to do -- largely unaided -- to transform the regional economy could be significantly helped by a federal government that was a partner, not a delinquent.

For instance:

Federal investments in next generation energy solutions to fuel the research and development engines at Michigan universities and energy technology firms. The brains and hands that shone in now lost auto jobs would find new success in energy technology jobs, from the design of new batteries to the manufacture of precision wind turbines.
Federal transportation policy that replaces earmarks and bridges to nowhere, with flexible resources to support the aerotropolis and bridges to Canada that can fuel regional commerce.
Meaningful federal housing policy to dramatically increase the ability of communities to develop vitally needed market-driven, mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhood development.
A sane border crossing and security policy to accelerate trade and transactions with our trusted neighbors.
Finally, follow through on a planned $25-billion program to clean up the Great Lakes, in part by improving aging sewer and infrastructure systems. A recent study completed by Brookings demonstrated that a federal follow-up would have at least an $80 billion-$100 billion economic benefit for Michigan and the other Great Lakes states.

It is imperative that Michigan and its sister states in the industrial Midwest not wait to catch a break -- but make their own breaks by demanding to know from the aspirants for president and our federal elected officials what they are specifically and tangibly doing to deliver for economic transformation.

Brookings is attempting to help by working with metropolitan communities across the country as part of its Blueprint for American Prosperity initiative -- developing practical federal policies that support the vitality of metropolitan communities such as Detroit. A major step forward was recently taken when Brookings joined the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce and 30 other chambers from the Midwest to come together and develop a set of federal action priorities.

There are eight months before we choose our next president. So it is time to keep it up, and keep it focused, and insist the next president and federal government are partners in Michigan's economic transformation, not merely passengers just breezing through to say hello.

BRUCE KATZ, is vice president of the Brookings Institution, and directs Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program. JOHN AUSTIN is vice president of the Michigan State Board of Education, a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution of Washington, D.C., and director of the Brookings Great Lakes Economic Initiative.

Authors

Publication: The Detroit Free Press

Downtown Detroit In Focus: A Profile of Market Opportunity

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Fifteen years ago, downtown Detroit was a traditional central business district (CBD) dominated by office users and offering little else, such as housing, entertainment, or retail. Over the past decade, more than $15billion has been invested downtown by the private and public sectors, according to the Tourism Economic Development Council, building two new professional sports stadiums, live theater and opera venues, gaming casinos and hotels, major new Class A offices for General Motors and Compuware, rental residential, retail, restaurants, and nightclubs. As a result of these investments, the character of downtown Detroit has fundamentally changed.

Given these changes, the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program Urban Markets Initiative, The Social Compact, and the University of Michigan worked together to evaluate the market size and potential of downtown Detroit. These three organizations used progressive analytics for downtown development to create this report. Most notable is the DRILLDOWN technique, one that is field-proven in leading urban markets such as Washington D.C., Harlem, and Oakland, to quantify opportunities in downtown Detroit. The progressive analytic methods used in this analysis for downtown development incorporated best practices in market research and new ways in which communities are now analyzing their unique data.

Using these market analysis techniques, this report finds the following opportunities in downtown Detroit:

An increasing downtown population with growing incomes
Strong, continued demand for residential construction and conversion
An underserved retail market for groceries and consumer goods such as clothing and clothing accessories, electronics and appliances, building materials and garden equipment, furniture and home furnishings
A thriving critical mass of urban entertainment venues and quality public space

In sum, downtown Detroit has the market foundation to become a vibrant, 24-hour residential, commercial, and entertainment district. With additional and strategic investments in retail and housing, downtown Detroit has the potential to be a strong center for its region.

Authors

The Social Compact, Inc
The Urban Markets Initiative, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program
University of Michigan Graduate Real Estate Program

The National Trend of Downtown Revitalization

Christopher B. Leinberger — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0500

In this speech at the annual meeting of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, Chris Leinberger discussed the downtown Detroit strategic planning process Brookings has started in partnership with the University of Michigan.

The metro program hosts and participates in a variety of public forums. To view a complete list of these events, please visit the metro program's Speeches and Events page which provides copies of major speeches, PowerPoint presentations, event transcripts, and event summaries.

Selected Media Coverage
Expert Offers Tips to Give Downtown a Lift
UM Land-Use Strategist: Detroit Poised for Downtown Redevelopment

Downloads

Download

Authors

Christopher B. Leinberger

Publication: Downtown Detroit Partnership

Metro Muslims Show Moderation in Faith, Politics

Muqtedar Khan — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0400

The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Michigan-based think tank, has just published a survey that underscores the remarkable moderation of Metro Detroit mosque goers in politics and Islam.

This survey now provides some scientific basis for the claim that most American Muslims are liberal—pro-democracy, comfortable with their American identity and willing to be critical of themselves—and their presence in America is economically, politically and culturally beneficial. Allegations that American Muslims may constitute a fifth column are beginning to look more and more shallow.

The study provides an interesting profile of the active Muslim in the Detroit area. The average participant in a mosque is 34, is married with children, is well-educated, is an immigrant or born to immigrants, makes more than $75,000 a year (but is a little stingy when it comes to giving to mosques), is either progressive (38 percent) or traditional (28 percent) in religious practice. The average Muslim is also politically conscious (68 percent registered to vote), a bit ethnocentric—there is some evidence of ethnic clustering around mosques—and is a political liberal (supports affirmative action, universal health care and tough environmental protection laws) but is socially conservative (worried about sexual promiscuity).

According to the institute's report, there are 33 mosques in Metro Detroit, up five in the last three years. The average number of people associated with each mosque is about 1,968, which means that roughly 65,000 Muslims attend mosques and mosque-related activities. Based on this count, the institute estimates 125,000 to 200,000 Muslims live in Metro Detroit.

I think this number is a bit low; the estimate relies on a rather dubious claim that one third of Muslims attend mosques. There is no scientific basis for this figure, except the optimism of some Muslim researchers about the high religiosity among Muslims.

The study's most important contribution is the survey of attitudes toward Islam. According to the survey, 38 percent of Detroit Muslims adopt a flexible approach to understanding Islam.

This is a very important and promising result. When Muslims adopt a flexible approach, what they essentially imply is that place and time must have an impact on how religious sources are interpreted. This allows the American experience to shape Islamic practice and often leads to greater gender equality in mosques, a more positive attitude toward democracy, freedom and human rights.

This attitude also fosters better interfaith relations and higher engagement with the mainstream culture, politics and society. These Muslims provide the necessary community support for developing progressive and liberal Islamic movements, institutions and ideas.

According to the study, only 8 percent of mosque participants who filled out a questionnaire identified themselves as Salafi—extremely conservative and narrow-minded. These Muslims practice gender discrimination and segregation as divine law and believe all non-Muslims including Jews and Christians will go to hell unless they embrace Islam.

The study celebrates this fact and concludes that conservatism and radicalism may not be present among Detroit Muslims.

However, one must consider the possibility that many Salafi Muslims may not identify themselves, recognizing that in the post-September 11 environment it may be an invitation for unnecessary legal scrutiny. Salafi Muslims usually are also anti-American.

Interestingly, more than a quarter of mosque participants identified themselves as followers of traditional Islamic scholars, which really means that they adhere to a fossilized interpretation of Islamic laws. They think the opinions of scholars who lived more than 500 years ago are more valid than those of contemporary scholars, making current realities irrelevant. Strong adherence to classical positions is also insensitive to contemporary demands for religious pluralism, gender sensitivity and modern conceptions of nationhood and citizenship.

The combination of traditionalists (with many Salafis probably choosing to hide in this category) and Salafis really make Detroit mosques as much conservative (36 percent) as progressive (38 percent). This situation could really make Detroit mosques a battleground for the proverbial soul of Islam.

The character of the mosques therefore will be determined by the influence exercised by Muslims who are theological freelancers (25 percent). If they lean to the past, the conservatives dominate; if they look to the future, the progressives will prevail.

Finally, I am glad to report that Muslims who have advocated participating in American mainstream society and politics have finally achieved a decisive victory (with some help from the Patriot Act, which restricts civil liberties) over anti-American isolationist Muslims, who advocate an Amish-like existence. According to the survey, 93 percent of mosque goers say Muslims must engage in politics.

The findings of this study have one big bias. It surveys only those "one-third of Muslims" who go to mosques. Mosque goers are easily more conservative than those who do not.

While mosque attendance may not determine favorable attitudes toward America, it strongly affects social, cultural and even political views. Thus it is heartening that even among religiously conservative Muslims (those who attend mosques), 38 percent are progressive and 25 percent are free lancers (flexible).

The American Muslim community is going through a significant transformation. Studies like that of the institute do a great service by providing a glimpse into the changing soul of American Islam. Hopefully, more studies will give a better picture of Muslims and help fight the suspicions and fear that September 11 has generated among other Americans.

Authors

Muqtedar Khan

Publication: The The Detroit News

The Calculus of Coalitions: Cities and States and the Metropolitan Agenda

Thu, 01 Apr 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Executive Summary

Cities are creations of their states. Their boundaries, their powers, and their responsibilities are all substantially prescribed by state law. With the advent of the new federalism—beginning in the 1970s and resurgent today—the devolution of power from Washington to state capitals has increased the importance of state decision making for cities.

Yet, this shift occurred precisely as cities were losing political clout in state legislatures due to population decline within city limits and rampant growth in suburban jurisdictions.

This paper argues that in response to shifting population distributions within states, cities need to build new coalitions to effectively achieve their legislative goals within state legislatures. Case studies—New York City, Chicago, Detroit, and the three largest cities in Ohio (Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus)—are used to more closely examine coalition-building methods.

Overall, the authors find:

Cities' dependence on state government has increased as the federal government has ceded more power to the states. As cities' populations have declined, they have become weaker in state legislatures that have grown more powerful due to federal policy. In the peak year of 1978, about 15 percent of city revenues came from the federal government. By 1999 that had decreased to 3 percent. Concurrently, the federal government has shifted a number of programs to the states, which control the rules and revenue mechanisms cities operate under.

Traditional political coalitions cities have used to achieve their state legislative goals are no longer as effective. Partisan (usually Democratic) coalitions are less reliable as focus has shifted to suburban swing districts. Moreover, as their power has decreased, cities' agendas have become more reactive, aiming to preserve the status quo in funding, infrastructure projects, and autonomy.

Older, inner-ring suburbs are a logical new partner for cities in state legislatures. Increasingly, these suburbs, and some outer ones, have common interests with central cities as they address immigration, fiscal stress, and infrastructure woes. Such alliances would also better address metropolitan-wide issues on a metropolitan basis.

There remain many obstacles to forging such coalitions, however, including longtime distrust among big cities and their neighbors, racial disparities, and in some cases, growing investment in central cities while surrounding suburbs languish. Nonetheless, for cities to effectively influence their state governments more creative approaches to coalition building must be found.

Downloads

Download

Authors

Hal Wolman, The George Washington University
Margaret Weir, University of California, Berkeley
Nicholas Lyon, The George Washington University
Todd Swanstrom, Saint Louis University

Detroit in Focus: A Profile from Census 2000

Sat, 01 Nov 2003 00:00:00 -0500

Executive Summary

Census 2000 reveals that Detroit residents increased their income during the 1990s, but that the city still confronts harsh social, demographic, and economic realities at the turn of the 21st century.

Between 1980 and 2000, Detroit lost fully one-fifth of its population. For the first time since the 1920 census, the city's population dipped below 1 million. Meanwhile, growth in the region during the 1990s occurred far from the core, as nearly every neighborhood in the city and its close-in suburbs lost residents. To be sure, Detroit actually gained Hispanic residents in the last decade, many of them new immigrants from Mexico. But at the same time it lost over 100,000 white residents. Today African Americans make up more than 80 percent of the city's population. Jobs also continued to shift outward in the Detroit metro area, and fewer than one-fourth of the region's workers are now employed in the central city.

Nevertheless, residents of Detroit appear to have greatly benefited from the strong Midwestern economy of the late 1990s. Household incomes rose faster than in any of the 22 other Living Cities, and child poverty dropped by a stunning 13 percentage points. Homeownership also grew for most racial/ethnic groups. Despite this progress, significant challenges remain. Detroit ranks low among U.S. cities on median household income, and four in ten of the city's families with children live below or near the poverty line. With such low incomes, many working families struggle to pay rent and save to buy a home; in many city neighborhoods today, a lack of market demand leaves senior citizens a majority among homeowners. Income growth in the future may be limited by the fact that only one in nine adults in the city holds a college degree.

Along these lines and others, then, Detroit in Focus: A Profile from Census 2000 concludes that:

The Detroit metro area continued to decentralize in the 1990s amid slow growth region-wide. Between 1980 and 2000, the City of Detroit lost one-fifth of its population. During the same period, the region's suburbs grew modestly, but the locus of that growth shifted far from the core. In the 1990s, a few neighborhoods in downtown Detroit gained residents, but population loss continued throughout the remainder of the city and in nearly all inner suburbs. Today, only 21 percent of Detroit-area residents live in the central city, and only 22 percent of the region's workers are employed there—roughly half that in the average Living City.

Detroit attracted modest numbers of immigrants, but African Americans make up the overwhelming majority of the population. The number of whites living in Detroit plummeted in the 1990s, and modest gains in Hispanic and Asian populations were not enough to compensate for these losses. By 2000, over 80 percent of the city's population was African American, by far the largest proportion among the 23 Living Cities. The city did gain 11,000 immigrants in the 1990s, particularly from Mexico and Iraq, but Detroit's suburbs added more than eight times as many foreign-born residents over the same period. In addition, the metro area remains highly stratified along racial and ethnic lines, with blacks largely confined to Detroit and its close-in suburbs to the north.

Children, especially those in single-parent families, dominate Detroit's population. Baby Boomers aged 35 to 54 are by far the nation's largest age cohort. In Detroit, however, this distinction belongs to young children aged 5 to 9. In fact, people under the age of 18 make up a greater proportion of the population in Detroit (31 percent) than in any other Living City. Most of the city's children live in single-parent households; more than a fifth of the city's households are non-married families with children, but only one-eighth are married couples with children. Over the decade, Detroit attracted few newcomers, and the number of 25- to 34-year-olds living in the city dipped 15 percent.

Incomes grew in Detroit during the 1990s, though the city remains home to a primarily low-wage workforce of all races and ethnicities. Detroit topped all other Living Cities in median household income growth over the decade (17 percent). The poverty rate dropped significantly, especially among children. However, Detroit still ranks 88th out of the 100 largest cities on household income. The number of middle-income households living in the central city declined over the decade, while the ranks of moderate-income "working poor" families grew. Detroit stands apart from other Living Cities in the extent to which low incomes are shared across all of its racial and ethnic groups—median incomes for white, black, Hispanic, and Asian households all lag the national average. Going forward, the low educational attainment of Detroit's residents will likely limit the city's future income growth—only 11 percent of them held a college degree in 2000.

Homeownership increased for most groups in Detroit, but many renters struggle to afford housing. Fifty-five percent of households in Detroit own their own homes, an above-average rate among the 23 Living Cities. And homeownership has been on the rise for the city's black households, 53 percent of whom now own. The weak housing market in many Detroit inner-city neighborhoods may have limited the economic benefits of homeownership, however. In many of these neighborhoods, the elderly represent a majority of homeowners. Rents in Detroit were stable over the decade, and in 2000 were second-lowest among the Living Cities. Yet even so, 60,000 Detroit renters still pay more than 30 percent of income on rent, suggesting that most earn too little to afford the modest rents that prevail throughout much of the city.

By presenting indicators like these on the following pages, Detroit in Focus: A Profile from Census 2000 seeks to give readers a better sense of where Detroit and its residents stand in relation to their peers, and how the 1990s shaped the cities, their neighborhoods, and the entire Detroit region. Living Cities and the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy hope that this information will prompt a fruitful dialogue among city and community leaders about the direction Detroit should take in the coming decade.

Detroit Data Book Series 1
Detroit Data Book Series 2

What Cities Need from Welfare Reform Reauthorization

Maureen Kennedy and Paul Leonard — Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 -0500

Downloads

Download

Authors

Maureen Kennedy
Paul Leonard

What Cities Need from Welfare Reform Reauthorization

Maureen Kennedy and Paul Leonard — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 00:00:00 -0500

While welfare caseloads have dropped and poverty has been reduced since the enactment of welfare reform five years ago, many cities are still struggling to help welfare recipients move into and stay in the workforce. Cities face unique challenges to welfare reform, including having a greater share of the nation's welfare caseloads, being home to the hardest to serve, and now confronting a looming economic recession that further threatens low-income workers. This paper argues that cities should organize now around an agenda for next year's reauthorization of welfare reform that is sensitive to the particular needs of urban areas. The paper offers a full range of policy recommendations for TANF reauthorization. For instance, cities should advance policies that will benefit these families broadly - maintaining TANF funding and flexibility; strengthening the contingency fund; holding states accountable for poverty reduction; and streamlining access to work supports like Food Stamps and Medicaid/SCHIP. Cities should also support tools that could help them overcome the special obstacles they face under welfare reform - a redesigned Welfare-to-Work program with greater local flexibility; an expansion of transitional jobs for the hard-to-serve; and enhanced transportation and residential mobility for inner-city recipients. The agenda advanced in this paper, if implemented, would promote real opportunity and economic self-sufficiency for urban welfare recipients and the working poor, and bring stability and vitality to thousands of poor inner-city neighborhoods.

Downloads

Download

Authors

Maureen Kennedy
Paul Leonard